Convert Hours to Seconds

Hours to Seconds Converter

Convert Hours to Seconds

To calculate a value in Hours to the corresponding value in Seconds, multiply the quantity in Hours by 3600 (conversion factor).

Seconds = Hours x 3600

How to convert from Hours to Seconds

The conversion factor from Hours to Seconds is 3600. To find out how many Hours in Seconds, multiply by the conversion factor or use the Hours to Seconds converter above.

Definition of Hour

An hour (symbol: h; also abbreviated hr.) is a unit of time conventionally reckoned as 1⁄24 of a day and scientifically reckoned as 3,599–3,601 seconds, depending on conditions. The seasonal, temporal, or unequal hour was established in the ancient Near East as 1⁄12 of the night or daytime. Such hours varied by season, latitude, and weather. It was subsequently divided into 60 minutes, each of 60 seconds. Its East Asian equivalent was the shi, which was 1⁄12 of the apparent solar day; a similar system was eventually developed in Europe which measured its equal or equinoctial hour as 1⁄24 of such days measured from noon to noon. The minor variations of this unit were eventually smoothed by making it 1⁄24 of the mean solar day, based on the measure of the sun's transit along the celestial equator rather than along the ecliptic. This was finally abandoned due to the minor slowing caused by the Earth's tidal deceleration by the Moon. In the modern metric system, hours are an accepted unit of time equal to 3,600 seconds but an hour of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) may incorporate a positive or negative leap second, making it last 3,599 or 3,601 seconds, in order to keep it within 0.9 seconds of universal time, which is based on measurements of the mean solar day at 0° longitude.

Definition of Second

The second (symbol: s) (abbreviated s or sec) is the base unit of time in the International System of Units (SI). It is qualitatively defined as the second division of the hour by sixty, the first division by sixty being the minute. The SI definition of second is "the duration of 9 192 631 770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium 133 atom". Seconds may be measured using a mechanical, electrical or an atomic clock. SI prefixes are combined with the word second to denote subdivisions of the second, e.g., the millisecond (one thousandth of a second), the microsecond (one millionth of a second), and the nanosecond (one billionth of a second). Though SI prefixes may also be used to form multiples of the second such as kilosecond (one thousand seconds), such units are rarely used in practice. The more common larger non-SI units of time are not formed by powers of ten; instead, the second is multiplied by 60 to form a minute, which is multiplied by 60 to form an hour, which is multiplied by 24 to form a day. The second is also the base unit of time in other systems of measurement: the centimetre–gram–second, metre–kilogram–second, metre–tonne–second, and foot–pound–second systems of units.